The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
UCONN
Baseball preview: vs. UCONN [Feb 24-26]
02.23.2017 | Baseball
The Longhorns host UCONN in the first regular season series between the sides.
TEXAS (3-2) vs. UCONN (3-1)
February 24-26, 2017
Where: Austin, Texas (UFCU Disch-Falk Field)
Time: Friday at 4 p.m. CT, Saturday at 2 p.m. CT, Sunday at Noon CT
TV: Longhorn Network
Radio: 104.9 FM The Horn/1260 AM—Craig Way (Play-by-Play), Bill Little (Analyst)
All-time series: Texas leads, 2-1
Complete Game Notes
PROBABLE STARTING PITCHERS?
FRIDAY—UCONN LHP Tim Cate (1-0, 0.00) vs. Texas RHP Morgan Cooper (0-0, 3.00)
SATURDAY—UCONN RHP Wills Montgomerie (1-0, 3.00) vs. Texas RHP Kyle Johnston (1-0, 1.50)
SUNDAY—UCONN LHP Doug Domnarski (0-1, 54.00) vs. Texas RHP Blair Henley (1-0, 1.80)
THE MATCHUP—This will be the first time the Longhorns and Huskies have met in a regular season series…their previous three meetings have all come in Omaha, with the last coming in 1979, an 11-4 Texas win in the College World Series.
A NEW CHAPTER—Last Friday marked David Pierce's first game at the helm of the Texas Baseball program…Pierce was named head coach on June 29, 2016, making him just the fifth Longhorn head coach since 1911 (with the exception of the war years of 1943-45 when Blair Cherry was at the helm) and the 13th head coach in 122 years of Texas baseball…Pierce—along with assistant coach Sean Allen, assistant coach Philip Miller and volunteer coach Phil Haig—came to Texas after two years at Tulane and three years at Sam Houston State.
MILESTONES—Pierce's first win with the program came on Saturday, February 18 over Rice in game one of the doubleheader…on Wednesday night, Pierce collected his 200th career win, a 7-2 defeat of Sam Houston State, the program where Pierce first got his start as a collegiate head coach.
NEXT UP—Texas heads to Palo Alto, Calif., for a four-game series against Stanford beginning Thursday…the two sides split the four-game series in Austin last season.
A LOOK AT THE HUSKIES—UCONN went 3-1 in its season-opening four-game series with UMass-Lowell in Port St. Lucie, Fla.…American Athletic Conference Rookie Pitcher of the Year and Louisville Slugger Freshman All-American LHP Tim Cate is scheduled to start on Friday for UCONN…the sophomore is coming off a 13-strikeout performance in his first start.
A LOOK AT THE LONGHORNS—After splitting the opening weekend series with Rice, Texas went on the road for a Wednesday night game against Sam Houston State…the trip marked the Longhorns' first ever road game in Huntsville and they came out with a 7-2 win in front of a record crowd (2,815) at Don Sanders Stadium.
#MOREOFTHOSE—Through five games, five different Longhorns have gone deep…the Horns hit two bombs in Wednesday night's game at Sam Houston State…Catcher Michael Cantu hit the first, giving him his first home run since March 24, 2015 at Texas State after not hitting a home run all of last season…Travis Jones hit the second of the night, a three-run bomb to put the game out of reach…the Longhorns had previously hit three solo homers this season.
FENCES FORWARD—UFCU Disch-Falk Field saw some renovations this winter as a new FieldTurf was installed and the outfield dimensions have been changed…the left-field line remains 340', center field remains '400 and the park remains 325' down the right-field line, however, the left-center field gap moves from 384' to 370' and the right-center field gap moves from 384' to 365'.
LONGHORNS IN THE DRAFT—Texas returned eight of its nine starting position players from last season after C Tres Barrera was drafted in the sixth round by the Washington Nationals…among starting pitchers, all return with the exception of LHP Ty Culbreth who graduated and was drafted in the eighth round by the Colorado Rockies.
D1 POWER RANKINGS—Several Longhorns appeared in the D1Baseball.com preseason position power rankings…RHP Morgan Cooper (No. 15), RHP Kyle Johnston (No. 61), Nolan Kingham (No. 128) and RHP Connor Mayes (No. 135) were ranked among starting pitchers…RHP Chase Shugart (No. 36) made this list of relievers…OF Patrick Mathis ranked No. 35 among D1 outfielders…INF Bret Boswell (No. 46) made the third basemen list, INF/OF Zane Gurwitz ranked No. 32 among second basemen and 1B/RHP Kacy Clemens ranked No. 42 on the first basemen list…RHP Blair Henley (No. 90) and INF David Hamilton (No. 99) made the Top 100 Freshman rankings.
D1 PREVIEW—Texas is projected to finish fourth in the Big 12 according to the D1Baseball.com staff, with RHP Morgan Cooper selected as the preseason Pitcher of the Year favorite…in D1Baseball's Top Prospects (2017 Draft) list, four Texas players ranked in the top seven—RHP Morgan Cooper (No. 1), RHP Kyle Johnston (No. 3), OF Patrick Mathis (No. 6) and INF Bret Boswell (No. 7).
OTHER RANKINGS—The Longhorns are currently ranked in a pair of national polls: Perfect Game ranks Texas No. 16 in its poll while Collegiate Baseball put the Longhorns at No. 25.
RANKED OPPONENTS—The Longhorns' schedule includes matchups against preseason No. 1 TCU, No. 13 UL Lafayette, No. 14 Texas Tech, No. 20 Texas A&M and No. 23 Rice, ranked according to D1Baseball.com.
HOME SWEET HOME—Twenty-one of the Longhorns first 27 games are set to take place at home in Austin…the only road games in that time come at Sam Houston State (Feb 22), Stanford (March 2-5) and Texas State (March 21)…overall, Texas plays just 20 of its 54 games away from UFCU Disch-Falk Field…among those 20 games is a March 28 game against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi held at Whataburger Field in Corpus Christi and an April 25 game against Louisiana at Constellation Field in Sugar Land.
WATCH 'EM—All but one Longhorns home games at UFCU Disch-Falk Field will be shown on Longhorn Network…Lowell Galindo will take over play-by-play duties this season while former Longhorn greats Keith Moreland and Greg Swindell will handle the color analyst duties…both broadcasters have their numbers retired at UFCU Disch-Falk Field…when Texas hosts Oklahoma on April 7, FOX Sports 1 will take over the broadcast as a part of its season-long Big 12 schedule.
HEAR 'EM—In partnership with IMG-College, Texas games will be broadcast on the Austin Radio Network, primarily on 104.9 The Horn and AM 1260.
